Markets

CNN's Jeff Zucker calls Google and Facebook "monopolies"

CNN President Jeff Zucker is calling for greater government oversight of Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB), calling the internet giants "monopolies."

"Everyone is looking at whether these combinations of AT&T and Time Warner or Fox and Disney pass government approval and muster, the fact is nobody for some reason is looking at these monopolies that are Google and Facebook," Zucker said in a speech to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Variety reports. "That's where the government should be looking, and helping to make sure everyone else survives. I think that's probably the biggest issue facing the growth of journalism in the years ahead."

The dominance of Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Google and Facebook in the digital advertising space has made it difficult for other online content providers to make money from ads. According to eMarketer, Google and Facebook will account for 63.1 percent of all U.S. digital media ad spending this year.

Google's a revenue is expected to hit $35 billion in 2018, up nearly 19 percent from a year ago. EMarketer forecasts that Facebook's total digital revenue will jump more than 40 percent, $17.4 billion, fueled by Instagram's rapid growth.

The Department of Justice in November sued to block AT&T's proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner, which owns CNN, saying the merger would harm competition, lessen innovation and result in higher costs for consumers. According to the complaint, the combined company would "harm consumers by substantially lessening competition among traditional video distributors and slowing emerging online competition."

As a condition for approving the merger, the Justice Department has pressed the telecommunications and media giants to sell Turner Broadcasting, the Time Warner unit that includes CNN. The antitrust trial is scheduled to begin March 19 and a decision is expected by April 22 - -the deadline for the deal to be completed -- Reuters reported late last year.